


Life, Liberty and the Persuit of Happiness

by AdotHann



Series: The Action in the Street [11]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: AND WIN, Alexnder Hamilton: ultimate close call, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angelica: also really tired, But probably not in the way you think, Chares Lee: NEEDS TO BE STOPPED, Donald Trump: his usual idiotic self, Eliza: just going with it, Gen, George Washington: fashionista, Im tagging this but i cant really remember what i wrote so like, John Laurens: really fucking tired, Lafayette: my sON, M/M, Maria Reynolds: Wonderful, Peggy: night blogging, Senator Hanover, Theo: the sensible one, Thomas: WILL FIGHT A MONUMENT, alex on the fire escape is totally an ITH ref btw, copious use of twitter interludes, group chat madness, idk whats happening, okay folks i think i've finally lost it, surprise i guess, this fic marks the start of my descent into insanity, uh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-16 21:27:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10579821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdotHann/pseuds/AdotHann
Summary: In which, Thomas Jefferson fights the Statue of Liberty-(feat. seabury's powers sort of revealed.)





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Hamilheroes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8443903) by [stardustandswimmingpools](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustandswimmingpools/pseuds/stardustandswimmingpools). 



Alex perched on the fire escape and looked out over the city in that brooding way that superheroes always seemed to do in movies. It wasn't his fire escape, in fact he'd never actually been on this fire escape before, and vaguely he wondered why. It was a pretty pleasant fire escape, with a nice view of the Statue of Liberty if you craned your head the right way. 

According to Angelica's rota, he was supposed to be patrolling the city - stopping petty crime and keeping people safe. Pros of being a superhero. He'd been 'patrolling' for a couple hours now but had been a slow night, and it was slowing down even more as it got closer to dawn. As much as Alex hated to say it, he was beginning to wish there was more crime in this city. At least it would make nights like this more exciting.

There was a loud crash from behind him, and Alex nearly toppled over railing in surprise before he realised that someone had thrown the apartment's screen door open.He whirled around to see - 

John Laurens. John fucking Laurens clutching a meat cleaver and looking like he'd only just woken up (and he probably had, Alex realised. Sometimes he forgot that other people actually had normal sleeping patterns.) Of all the thousands of apartments in New York City, he'd somehow managed to stumble across John's. Alex took a second to admire his adorable bed hair, then made a mental note to ask Angelica for the odds on that one later.

"Oh. Hi," Alex said dumbly, still processing how fucking weird this whole situation was. John blinked at him.

"Hi. You're the Illusionist." John stated, still sounding half asleep.

"Yup. I was... borrowing your fire escape. For superhero purposes." Alex said weakly, "Sorry for waking you up."

"Don't worry about it," John said drowsily, probably wondering whether or not he was still dreaming. "Fancy that, my fire escape. Helping protect the city."

Then he wandered back inside, still clutching the knife. Alex breathed a sigh of relief. Honestly, he wasn't really sure what else he had been expecting. This was the guy who'd chewed out the Marquis for not waiting in line for his coffee.

Alex's phone buzzed.

 

* * *

  

 _Chat: SOC (Save Our City)_

 _Pinky_ : so I was thinking

 _TheBrain:_ it's the middle of the night

 _Pinky:_ your point 

 _TheBrain_ : ....

 _Pinky:_ that's what I thought 

 _Pinky:_ Anyway. Which fictional superheroes would we be?

 _DoYouMind:_ we are literally real-life superheroes?

 _MsTheO_ : @DoYouMind shhh

 _MsTheO:_ I'd be Wonder Woman 

 _Pinky:_ omg true 

 _BestOfWomen:_ @Pinky you could be Ms Marvel, but like, the new one

 _Pinky:_ but why

 _BestOfWomen:_ idk I don't read a lot of comics but she seems good n pure.

 _Pinky:_ aww :) yea okay I can get behind that 

 _Pinky_ : @BestOfWomen you'd be Bloom from winx club

 _BestOfWomen:_ um what

 _DoYouMind:_ @Pinky wtf

 _Pinky_ : only person I could think of with healing powers

 _MsTheO_ : why winx club tho

 _MsTheO_ : there are so many superheroes with healing powers

 _Pinky_ : @MsTheO hush 

 _Pinky_ : @TheBrain you'd be Cypher

 _DoYouMind:_ OMG TRUE

 _TheBrain:_ who?

 _Pinky:_ this one dude from X-Men who has like fairly similar powers to u. Google him.

 _TheBrain:_ I can live with that. He seems cool.

 _Pinky_ : :))

 _Pinky_ : @DoYouMind you and the Manipulator have like the same power so you can fight over being Loki

 _DoYouMind_ : me, the manipulator and phantom*

 _Pinky_ : no??

 _Pinky_ : Phantom is literally nothing like Loki

 _DoYouMind_ : true but like, we have the exact same superpower?

 _Pinky_ : no you don't? Phantom only has invisibility??

 _MsTheO_ : ??

BestOfWomen: you guys didn't know this?

 _TheBrain_ : wait wait wait

 _TheBrain_ : holy shit

 _TheBrain_ : how did I not realise 

 _TheBrain_ : suddenly everything makes so much more sense 

 _MsTheO_ : @DoYouMind explain

 _DoYouMind_ : The Manipulator, Phantom and I have the power to invade people's minds and,,, I guess change what they think they see

 _DoYouMind_ : my illusions are technically a kind of mind control. I'm invading the victims brains and changing what they see

 _DoYouMind_ : the Manipulator could do illusions if he wanted, but I mean 

 _DoYouMind_ : I'm sure taking over the city is a lot easier if you have an army of mindless drones at your command

 _MsTheO_ : what about Phantom?

 _DoYouMind_ : invisibility is basically an illusion

 _DoYouMind_ : it's the most basic illusion

 _DoYouMind_ : he probably can't see the full potential of his powers. It's like an underdeveloped version of what the manipulator and I do.

 _Pinky_ : well shit

 _TheBrain_ : let's all agree to NEVER tell Phantom that he could achieve the same things as the Manipulator 

 _Pinky_ : @BestOfWomen wait how did you know about all this 

 _BestOfWomen_ : I thought it was pretty obvious

 _DoYouMind_ : I genuinely don't understand how you guys didn't know

 

* * *

 

The clock by his bedside glowed 3:32 in an truly offensive shade of luminous purple. Thomas sat bolt upright in bed with the distinct feeling that the very values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were being violated.   
Somewhere outside (and, from the sound of it, not too far off,) there was a horrible metallic screeching sound, like nails on a blackboard - if the nails had been the size of surfboards, and the backboard made of scrap iron.

Considering the life he led, Thomas really shouldn't have been surprised when he pulled back his curtains to look out over the city, only to see Lady Liberty - who was now apparently strolling around the city of her own accord, like something out of one of those Japanese monster movies, - slowly moving down the street outside.He sighed deeply and long-sufferingly, before getting out of bed.

Thomas wasn't really sure what he thought he was going to do against a gigantic metal colossus that was probably hell bent on destroying the city, but he really felt like he was going to have to do something. He couldn't let the city's mascot destroy the city - that was his job.

Carefully stepping over and around some of his various animals, Thomas made his way over to where his super suit had been carelessly discarded. From outside he heard the unmistakable crunch of an enormous metal colossus stepping on an expensive car, and Thomas winced. It was going to be a long night.

 

* * *

 _Chat: Evil League of Evil_

 

 _LaBaguette_ : which one of you is, how do you say, using the Statue of Liberty to destroy the city

 _Ghostie_ : wait, what?

 _YankeeCandle_ : @Ghostie turn on your TV. It's literally on every news channel 

 _LaBaguette_ : @YankeeCandle if this is your idea of attacking the city Is2g I will kill you AND thomas

 _YankeeCandle_ : IT WASNT ME

 _Ghostie_ : (she even caught me on camera)

 _LaBaguette_ : are you sure?

 _YankeeCandle_ : YES

 _LaBaguette_ : because I know it's not me

 _LaBaguette_ : and Aaron is not capable of doing anything like this 

 _Ghostie_ : rude

 _LaBaguette_ : also I can't see a flaw that Ms Miracle could exploit and those things are usually pretty obvious

 _Ghostie_ : I feel so attacked right now

 _LaBaguette_ : and Thomas does not have the motivation get up this early to attack the city

 _LaBaguette_ : that's why I usually have the morning shift

 _YankeeCandle_ : Is2g this isn't me

 _ThomasThomas_ : YO I'M QUEER

 _ThomasThomas_ : HERE*

 _ThomasThomas_ : both tbh

 _ThomasThomas_ : which one of you asshats is ruining Lady Liberty? And why didn't you schedule it with the rest of us first?

 _YankeeCandle_ : read up 

 _Ghostie_ : are you guys still watching the news?

 _YankeeCandle_ : I'm not really paying attention, why?

 _Ghostie_ : watch

 _ThomasThomas_ : WHSIJEHRHEHEHAKAHD

 _LaBaguette_ : well damn

 _YankeeCandle_ : motherfucker

 _ThomasThomas_ : WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

 _ThomasThomas_ : IS THAT SEABURY

 _ThomasThomas_ : WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE F

 

* * *

 

In most fiction, superheroes had some kind of badass secret base to conduct their operations from - think of the Bat Cave, the Fortress of Solitude, Avengers Mansion, the Watch Tower. 

In real life, the heroes of New York had Angelica's apartment.

All things considered, it wasn't a terrible secret base. Sure, it wasn't particularly cool - there were no super computers or secret entrances, but there was a window and a fire escape for easy access, and Angelic was basically a super computer in her own right. Plus Maria was usually there, which meant really good coffee and pancakes. 

The team sat huddled around their strategic planning table (which led a double life as Angelica's coffee table,) and watched the attack play out on the screen in front of them. 

"I think we're going to have to fight him." Theo said, getting to her feet. Peggy uttered a noise of total despair.

"No, wait," Angelica said, still assessing the situation in the screen,"I don't think we will."

"What do you mean?" Theo asked, clearly not spitting whatever loop hole Angelica had just found.

Angelica gestured to a tiny purple figure on the screen. 

"I think," She said slowly, watching the figure furiously scale the side of the moving monument, "The Manipulator is about to do it for us."

 

* * *

* * *

 

John Laurens @SuperWatch  
I hope you guys like cheesy giant monster movies!  [picture attached]

|

John Laurens @SuperWatch  
Grab some popcorn and turn on the news cause that guy who dresses like a farmer and a preacher is about to tear the city up

 

Maria @MarieLew  
@SuperWatch So has everyone seen that episode of doctor who where the Statue of Liberty is a weeping angel or was this a coincidence ??

 

John Laurens @SuperWatch  
#Manipulator is now on site? I'm really not sure what's going on, stay tuned for more updates

 

* * *

 

"How are you even doing this?" Thomas asked, nearly losing his balance as the statue took another lurching step.

"I'm going to use her to cut the city up," Seabury said gleefully, but not really giving the situation any clarity. Thomas decided to assume that this mess was simply a product of Seabury's powers, whatever those actually were. He continued waffling, "- And it's too late for you to stop me, hero."

"Wait, what?" Thomas said, letting that disturbing insult sink in. But Seabury had already launched into his evil scheme.

"Imagine them fearing the very personification of the idea they hold most dear! Lady Liberty will help me enslave the city!" He began to cackle in a truly unnerving way. Thomas could appreciate an evil laugh like the greatest connoisseurs appreciated fine wine, but Seabury's cackle (which was slowly morphing into a hacking cough,) was really pushing the line.

"Look, the irony is lovely but I'm not actually a superhero?" He drawled. "Maybe you should save the speech for the Illusionist or something." 

Seabury blinked once, twice, shook his head as if to clear it, then paused his attack.

"You're not?" He said, looking a little lost.

"No, I'm really not." Thomas said in the way that someone might say _'Yes, the sky really is blue. I know it doesn't seem obvious but if you really look at it, like really really closely, it's actually blue! Weird, right?'_

"But you're always thwarting my plans!" Seabury said, looking absolutely horrified (and honestly, despite how vulgar his original implication was, Thomas thought that this was a bit of an overreaction.) 

"Yeah," He replied, "Because your plans keep getting in my way." 

Seabury said nothing.

Thomas paused to squint at his unhealthily pale complexion, "Do you like, ever get out of the house? 'Cause that might explain why you somehow missed the fact that I am literally one of New York's most feared super villains"

But Seabury didn't seem to be listening to him.

"Oh god," The farmer-preacher-whatever whispered to no one in particular, "I miss informed him. I lied to him."

"You what?" Thomas said, totally lost.

"I have failed in my mission." Seabury declared, "I lied to my overlord." 

"Your overlord?" Thomas asked, "Are you a part of some kind of cult? Wait, don't tell me. I get the feeling I really don't want to know."

Thomas probably could have set some elaborate illusion trap, or mind-controlled Seabury into stopping, but there was something much more satisfying about the way his fist connected with Seabury's face, and the sudden silence that came after it.

 

* * *

 

 _To CountryGirl_ : so I think the Illusionist crashed my fire escape last night?

 _From CountryGirl_ : really???

 _From CountryGirl_ : before or after the situation w/ lady liberty?

 _To CountryGirl_ : before 

 _From CountryGirl_ : pictures or it didn't happen

 _To CountryGirl_ : sure thing 

 _To CountryGirl_ : [picture attached]

 _From CountryGirl_ : JOHN ITS TOO EARLY FOR RICK ROLL GIFS

 _To CountryGirl_ : it's never too early for rickroll 

 _To CoCountryGirl_ : rickroll is my alarm 

 _From CountryGirl_ : Laurens you disgust me 

 _To CountryGirl_ : ;)

 

* * *

 

Angelica watched rather disinterestedly as John Church slammed his head against his desk. 

"Bloody Hanover and his bloody plan," He mumbled into a stack of photos, "How the hell are we going to survive this gala?"

Angelica sighed. "By representing our news paper, presenting a united front and looking kickass," She replied, "I've found a dress by the way."

Church looked up hopefully, "Did you get me anything to match?"

"No, I'll get my friend to make something." She replied, and John put his face back on the desk. "Something feels off about this whole gala."

"It's Hanover," John said disdainfully, "Of course there's something off about it."

Angelica shook her head as she looked out at the sky, the horizon still tinged pink in the early morning light, "More than usual. It doesn't make sense to hold an event like this right now; his plan has some support in the middle class, but not the upper class. There's no interest there, they don't feel like supers are putting them in danger. But despite the lack of support from people who could actually help him fund it, he's pushing stuff like this."

John frowned, "That does seem odd."

"It doesn't make sense." Angelica insisted, "There has to be more to this than we know."

"Angelica Schuyler, star reporter." Church said, grinning, "Always raring to get to the bottom of something."

 

* * *

 

John Laurens @SuperWatch  
The situation at the Statue of Liberty has been resolved! Sort of

|

John Laurens @SuperWatch  
She's stopped attacking the city, and authorities are currently trying to work out how to move her back to her island 

 

Donald J Trump @realDonaldTrump   
Authorities are not dealing with super situation in NY, letting supers destroy national icons! Very sad!

Donald J Trump @realDonaldTrump  
Good thing we will soon have @senHanover s plan to protect us from these monsters 

 

John Laurens @SuperWatch  
@realDonaldTrump Supervillains literally hurt real people every day and you're worried about a statue 

John Laurens @SuperWatch  
@realDonaldTrump  Also stop calling people with powers 'monsters.' Like it or not, they're people too and should be treated as such.

 

Charles @CharLee  
@Actually_Angelic @realDonaldTrump it's a national icon!

Angelica @Actually_Angelic  
@CharLee it's a hunk of metal and false promises!  

 

* * *

 

"Ah, fuck." Herc said, glaring at his phone as if it had personally insulted him. Laf looked up.

"What is it mon amour?"

"Commissioner Washington's finally texted me the specifications for the suit he's commissioning me to make." Herc replied, now pinching his nose as if to ward off a migraine.

Laf shot him a sympathetic but confused look, "Why is that a bad thing?"

Herc sighed. "Washingtons a great man, and I can't imagine anyone better qualified help keep our city safe, but he's a total prick when it comes to commissioning clothes."

Lafayette let out a surprised bark of laughter, and Herc continued to rant.

"He said he wants subtle American revolution vibes," Herc said exasperatedly, "Theres no further information at all, just motherfucking subtle American revolution vibes. What does that even mean?"

The bell above the shop door went. Laf looked up then smiled blindingly.

"John Church! Here to get your first super villain outfit?" Laf asked, pulling out his phone, "I'll take some pictures for Thomas. He will probably want to, how you say, scrapbook them or something."

John blinked, bemused by the sudden onslaught of conversation. "Uh actually Angelica sent me. She wants me to match her for this event, said to ask you to make me a blazer or something?"

Hercules gave him a worried look. "How do you know Angelica?" 

John Church blinked. "Um. We just work together?"

Herc nodded, seemingly satisfied. He began rummaging around in his desk draw for a tape measure. "I've seen her dress, I'm sure I can fix you with something," Herc said then paused to consider Church, "We may as well sort out your super suit while we're at it."

"Wait, what?"

"I'm thinking white with gold accents," Herc said, looking over him. Lafayette nodded in approval and Herc continued, "It'll suit you, and it goes pretty well with the whole twisted angelic thing the media’s already pegged you for - they're calling you Seraphim, right?"

"Yeah - wait, no!" John said, "I literally have no intention of ever attacking the city, why do I need a costume?"

Laf and Herc exchanged amused glances. 

"Right," Hercules said, "Anyway, how do you feel about a wing insignia on the back?”

 

* * *

 

 _Chat: Evil League of Evil_

 _ThomasThomas_ : did you guys know that the superheroes have regular movie nights with our friendly neighbourhood tailor

 _YankeeCandle_ : omg rly that's so cute

 _LaBaguette_ : oui 

 _Ghostie:_ why should we care?

 _ThomasThomas_ : well

 _ThomasThomas:_ I feel kind of jealous

 _ThomasThomas:_ and Herc isn't supposed to take sides

 _ThomasThomas_ : so...

 _LaBaguette_ : @ThomasThomas I know what you're thinking and I strongly suggest that you Do Not

 

* * *

 

It had been a couple of hours since Thomas and his entire gang of super villains had broken into Herc's apartment, in full costume (aside from Church, who was wearing a batman shirt and jeans,)  and proclaimed that "You want to maintain neutrality, you have to have movie nights with the villains too."

Herc had been to stunned to mention the fact that he had probably thrown all neutrality out of the window when he and Laf had finally gotten together.

Despite the absurdity of the situation, it had been a pretty nice evening. Hercules, Lafayette and Thomas were all squashed onto Herc's (rather small) two person sofa (and thank god Laf had their their hair up, otherwise Herc wouldn't have been able to tell them apart and that really could have been disastrous.) Aaron had managed to claim the single seater. His expression betrayed no emotion, but Herc was willing to bet that he was thoroughly reevaluating his life choices. As the newbie of the group, John Church had been exiled to the floor. 

Herc heard a gentle thud from somewhere beside him and realised that Thomas had finally fallen asleep, and in doing so, face planted into the arm of the sofa. Herc was actually kind of impressed; Thomas had looked exhausted all evening (the kind of exhausted that can only come from battling a giant metal automaton at 3am the night before,) but he'd managed to stay awake all through Doctor Horribles Sing-Along Blog, and most of Megamind. 

Herc was under no illusions - this was nowhere near the end of Villain movie nights. The stack of DVDs (Catwoman, the first season of Lucifer, and all the X-Men movies to name a few,) by his TV was still tall. Hercules sighed as the credits began to roll, and pulled his arms a little tighter around Lafayette. Somehow this all felt like the calm before the storm.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Two updates in two days??? How fucking wild is this!!! Thats right folk, we're celebrating double fucking figures!! Or in other words, I procrastinated my halfterm work by spending all day writing this. I welcome the sweet embrace of death.
> 
> Also, on the bit with Washington's suit, according to Rob Chernow's biography, Washington was obsessed with clothes. Like remember that group of men he talks about leading into a massacre in the musical? After that happened he went and got a hat made to try and cheer himself up. What a fucking nerd.
> 
> In other news, I only have two more fics in this series planned out. We're by no means finished (I'm honestly anticipating this ending up with 20 parts or something,) but I've had this pretty well planned from the start and soon I'm going to be flying mostly without a map and I am aFRAID
> 
> update as of 27/06/2017 - I've totally lost motivation to write about this AU but don't panic, I'm not ditching it just yet. I'm now working on a sort of possible future fic set in this Au, about the squad's kids (mainly Phillip and Theo.) I'm not going to put it in this series because it will be a separate work (plus I don't want to fuck up the chronology of this series.)  
> I'll be back to this series as soon as I've done something worth while with my new one. 
> 
> So, uh, keep an eye out for that!
> 
> Update as of later that same day: Its up! go read it! Oh my gosh! The action in the streets: Outshine the Morning Sun!!! Go check it out!!!


End file.
